If you were paying close attention to this morning’s announcement of AMD’s new Ryzen Pro SKUs, then you likely noticed something interesting: the non-X PRO chips all have the same performance specifications as their standard consumer counterparts. Specifically, both of the non-X PRO SKUs with existing Ryzen 5 & 7 counterparts have the same core counts, clockspeeds, and TDPs. And for the final 2 Ryzen PRO 3 SKUS? Well, AMD has inadvertently shown their hand here when it comes to forthcoming Ryzen 3.

With the release of the Ryzen PRO 3 specifications, AMD has now confirmed what we’ve been suspecting for the Ryzen 3 specifications for a while now. Ryzen 3 is a quad-core CPU without SMT, so we’re looking at just 4 threads instead of 8, albeit 4 threads without any of the resource contention SMT can sometimes cause. On which matter, it’s worth pointing out that AMD has already previously commented that Ryzen 3 will use the same die as Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7, so we’re looking at 4 cores distributed over 2 CCXs, like the Ryzen 5 1400 & 1500X.

AMD Ryzen 5 & 3 SKUs

Cores/
Threads

Base/
Turbo

XFR

L3

TDP

Cost

Cooler

Ryzen 5 1600X

6/12

3.6/4.0

+100

16 MB

95 W

$249

-

Ryzen 5 1600

6/12

3.2/3.6

+100

16 MB

65 W

$219

Spire

Ryzen 5 1500X

4/8

3.5/3.7

+200

16 MB

65 W

$189

Spire

Ryzen 5 1400

4/8

3.2/3.4

+50

8 MB

65 W

$169

Stealth

Ryzen 3 1300*

4/4

3.5/3.7

TBD

8 MB

65 W

TBD

-

Ryzen 3 1200*

4/4

3.1/3.4

TBD

8 MB

65 W

TBD

-

Similarly, AMD’s reveal indicates that Ryzen 3 will have the same cache structure as the lowest-end Ryzen 5, the 1400. That means just half of the chip’s total 16MB of L3 cache is enabled. However each core still retains its full 512KB of L2 cache. Finally, this inadvertent reveal also confirms that TDPs for the lowest-end members of the Ryzen family will stick with the same 65W TDP as all but the highest-performance Ryzen chips.

Of course, it should be noted here that AMD’s accidental reveal doesn’t mean that the 1300 & 1200 will be the only Ryzen 3 chips we’ll see. Just like the Ryzen 5 and 7 only had a couple of PRO counterparts, it’s likely that the story will be the same for the Ryzen 3 series. In particular, Ian suspects a Ryzen 3 1300X will show up, but we shall see in due time…

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47 Comments

They keep the single core clocks too low to push people towards the 6 cores SKUs but not everybody needs 6 cores and AMD is loosing customers to Intel this way.It will get worse with Skylake gen 3 in a couple of months so they really need to add a 1520.

For the 4 threads SKUs, if AMD keeps waiting and waiting for no reason at all, Intel might offer the first quad at 99$ , since AMD apparently is not all that interested in selling its products.They should try a bit harder with Ryzen, it's not like Vega will save the day - by the time Vega launches it will feel like Bulldozer 2.0.Reply

In Q3 for no good reason. You can find poor reasons like old inventory and good yields but no good reason to delay Ryzen 3 for 2 quarters.AMD current Ryzen 5 cores are selling poorly because single core clocks are too low.

And maybe you are not from this planet but people from planet Earth know that Intel will have 6 ores soon and that means that 4 cores get cheaper. Starting August, Intel can easily beat AMD bellow 200$ as they have higher IPC, higher clocks and an integrated GPU. AMD's quads are dead, the window of opportunity closes and their next chance is next year with a native quad die starting from 49$ and that's all because a self inflicted moronic delay.Reply

The good reason is that they are harvested 1800 models. So most probably there are not enough bad chips to use for Ryzen 3 before autumn. If this would have been real 4 core CPU then there should not have been a problem, but because they use those chips that are no good for Ryzen5, there just is not enough of them to release any earlier!Reply

People from Earth also know that Intel doesn't lower prices, and that any Coffe Lake other than the 6-core parts is scheduled for next year.

And accusing AMD for not having any good reason to launch Ryzen 3 later is hilarious. You should write "I can not imagine any reason which is acceptably good for me". 14 nm capacity at GloFo is limited. They' got to supply Polaris (shortage anyone?), produce Vega and Zeppelin, prepare Raven Ridge and supply other customers (e.g. Aquantia). Threadripper and Epyc are not even on sale yet. If I were AMD I'd rather sell my Zeppelins as high-margin products than low end Ryzen 3. Is this the reason for the "delay"? I can't say for sure, but I think it's borderline-trolling to outright dismiss such an obvious possibility.Reply

Darn you beat me to it. I agree, rather cocky attitude considering AMD makes more money off Ryzen 5 and 7, and it's the same die. I would like to see them release a single CCX variant. They could offer at a minimum quad core models, and dual-core with HT, possibly tri-core variants. But that requires a new design and they have so much on their plate that is more important.Reply

I too want AMD to succeed and spook at more market panic, but time will tell and AMD has to watch their backs. Ryzen3 is a solid work load CPU for laxed users. Attention will be on ThreadRipper, price dependent. long game?Reply